Command Line Warriors
26 July 2007
An acquaintance of mine who is not a geek or a hacker, asked me to explain the meaning of my blog title, and what were all these alien words about, 'Command-line', 'Linux', 'Python' and so on. For the latter question, they need to read the whole blog. It is the answer to the first question, the title, that this short post in going to cover, I offer one possible answer.
As regular readers will know, there are two aspects to the term 'Command Line Warriors'. As well as the computing metaphor, you type a word and the computer does something; 'Command' has an older, more militaristic meaning, e.g. 'chain of command', 'commander' and you have the 'front line' and the 'command line' and so on.
A military commander cannot just march with the troops, he has to be clear about his aims while paying attention to all the relevant environmental factors on the ground that can affect and inform his strategy. The commander cannot just buy some weapons then wait around and hope for the best, it is up to him to go out and win victories.
Likewise, to take command of technology is more than just being a user of technology, it is to think about the overall environment and to adopt a strategy; it is to actively participate in determining the nature of our technological future rather than to passively consume what you are given.
The narrow meaning of 'command line warrior' is someone proficient in using the Unix/Linux shell. The broader meaning is someone who is willing to take the extra time and effort to think through and take control of all the technology that is entering into our daily lives; to make sure that our freedoms, hard-fought for on the battle field, protest rally and ballot box, are not quietly surrendered in the digital age, but instead freedom must be at the very foundation of technology itself.
That is my answer, please do feel free to leave me your interpretation of the title in the comments.
1 Michael Trausch says...
I just added your blog to my Google Reader a couple of days ago, and I must say that I was rather happy to see this post, particularly the second-to-last paragraph. Freedom is the entire reason that I use Linux and other freely available Unix-like operating systems, and it is certainly freedom that drives me to use the shell (I often want to do things that GUI programmers haven't considered, for example; the command line is a very liberating place to just get things done for me).
Posted at 1:45 a.m. on July 26, 2007
2 sheng says...
in geek world, the question should be answered by - man "Command Line Warriors"
Posted at 6:02 p.m. on July 27, 2007
3 Zeth says...
Out of interest, here is the description that was in the right hand side bar of the old site design:
Command Line Warriors is about taking control of your own technology, it looks at our experiences of computing; especially computing using GNU/Linux, often using the command line and other textual means, but also other issues such as ethics, best practices and whatever is cool now. If you take control of your technology then you are a Warrior too!
This site is your site too which means that you can contribute and get involved. You can leave comments using the facility provided. For me, the comments and discussions are by far the best part of the site. So please do have your say.
Posted at 12:47 p.m. on September 17, 2007
4 Brock Noland says...
Michael,
"the command line is a very liberating place to just get things done for me"
Thanks the insight. I have never described my love for the command line as liberating. After reading your comment I realized my love stems from the freedom the command line allows me.
Brock
Posted at 10:56 p.m. on October 16, 2007
5 Brock Noland says...
Woops, and why I came to the about page....Zeth you must have gotten dugg or /.'ed or something in August. I was bumming around and ended up at alexa's traffic site. Your "read" (whatever that means) exploded in August. Just out of curiosity, what post was it?
Posted at 11:02 p.m. on October 16, 2007